Micing a stand up bass

[euphoria_rising]

I have a project coming in that is a rock-a-billy band, and they have a stand up bass. Now i have never recorded a stand up bass before. Of course i would run the DI but im pretty sure that is going to sound like crap. So i was curious what type of mic i should use. I have available to me a EV RE20, two akg C414s, senn 421, neuman tlm103 and u89, and senn E609. Im pretty sure im going to want something with a large diaphram but i also have a rode nt4 and royer sf12 stereo mics and of course sm57s.

ANy help will be appreciated i wont have alot of time to experiment with this group (unfortunatley) so whatever advise you can give will be wonderful. Thanks in advance.

[Gloryland Productions]

I am sure you will get other responses but I recently recorded a stand up bass with good results. I tried a couple of different microphones and settled with an ifet7. Something I noticed is that to make the instrument sound good in the mix, I actually had to remove the low-end frequencies and boost the mid frequencies. I placed the mic around six inches above the bridge. You will have to move the mic around until you find the sweet spot. By the way, I would use a large diaphragm mic. I don’t think I would use the C414 or the tlm103.

[michaelhoddy]

I usually use a U47 or something like it (E47, U195, M147, and the Ifet7 would all be in the ballpark).

Of your collection, I'd be trying both the Neumanns, the RE20, and the 414. Something is bound to work well out of that bunch.

[dpd]

Everytime I record acoustic bass I get *everything* in the room in that mic. How do you get any kind of isolation?

[Gloryland Productions]

On two occasions, I was lucky enough to have good players. I placed one bass player in an isolation room and the other occasion, the acoustic bass player tracked later. The instrument is so soft in terms of volume; the mic will pick up anything else in the room.

[michaelhoddy]

It's only a bad thing if you hate your room, or if the player can't play without making lots of non-bass-related noises. If they're playing live with an ensemble, you HAVE to put them in an iso booth of some kind.

Most studio upright players also have a pickup. I use a combination of both sounds, leaning more toward the mic, which I keep fairly close to the bass off one of the f-holes, angled in toward the fretboard and bridge. If you want more thump and, put it more on-axis. If you want more boom, move it closer, less boom, farther away, and so on.

If they're playing live in the same room as other people, you're going to have to make the majority of your sound from the pickup. There just is no way to get a mic-only sound clean enough otherwise. Maybe an exception would be piano jazz trio or something, where everyone is playing pretty quietly anyway. If you've got horns anywhere in proximity or a drummer banging away, you're done.

Any big-sounding, warm mic with lots of presence works well, which is why I like U47s for this. I'd imagine a good ribbon (active would be helpful) might work well too (will have to try my R-122 on this sometime).

I also like omni mics for this. Then, your room HAS to be in order.

[Gloryland Productions]

Michael,

I interpreted his question differently but I could be wrong. A year or so ago I worked with a bluegrass group that absolutely insisted on recording live within a few feet of each other. Even though I love my room, I could not keep the guitar, vocals, etc, out of the bass track.

[michaelhoddy]

Yeah, I kind of wondered if I'd missed the point after my first stab at it as well, which is why I added that part about the pickup. In cases like you describe, I end up using like 20 percent mic, 80 percent pickup, sometimes even more pickup. Not my favorite way of doing it, but sometimes the only way.

Picking up all that ambience leakage AFTER it's been reflected off the front of the bass is even more fun...

[dpd]

Originally posted by michaelhoddy
Picking up all that ambience leakage AFTER it's been reflected off the front of the bass is even more fun...

My theory (?) is that the sheer physical size of the instrument turns it into a re-radiating baffle for every sound ray that hits it.

I took identical mics one session and swapped the bass and sax player's positions. In both locations the bleed into the sax mic was minimal and the bleed on the bass was higher than the bass signal itself. So, it wasn't that the bassist was in a 'hot spot' - the bass itself is the primary factor. A real bitch to mix the bass. Some bassists just don't get the fact that the DI really gets them heard better in small studios with everyone playing live.

I put a bassist behind my Clearsonic panels once - that helped. An iso booth would be really nice, though. I just don't have one...

[djui5]

I think a U89 positioned off to the right a little (if looking at the bass) and angeled upwards with the mic sitting near the bottom of the bass should suite you just fine.